Denmark‘s players will travel to the 2022 FIFA World Cup without their families, according to local media, as the Danish FA (DBU) wishes to limit activity in Qatar in protest of the country’s human rights record.
According to DBU communications manager Jakob Hoyer, this is a protest against the country’s human rights record. “We don’t want to contribute to creating profit for Qatar,” he said. “Therefore, we have throttled down as much as possible on our travel activities. In previous (World Cup finals), the players’ wives and girlfriends have travelled with the board, but as I said, we have cancelled those trips for (these finals),” he added
Qatar has come under fire from human rights organisations and the media for its treatment of migrant workers. According to a Guardian newspaper investigation published in February 2021, 6,500 South Asian migrants have died in Qatar since 2010, and the International Labour Organization has stated that Qatar is not adequately reporting worker deaths. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) of Qatar has refuted the claim that “the tournament has cost thousands of people their lives”.
The government has stated that its labour system is a work in progress, but it has denied a 2021 Amnesty International report that thousands of migrant workers are still exploited. The kit Denmark will wear at the World Cup, according to sportswear company Hummel, was designed as a protest against Qatar’s human rights record.
Hummel also released a black third-choice design, named “the colour of mourning,” to honour migrant workers killed while building stadiums for the tournament. Qatar’s World Cup organising committee responded angrily to Denmark’s stunt at the time, denying all allegations levelled against the host country.
“We dispute Hummel’s claim that this tournament has cost thousands of people their lives,” the statement read. “Furthermore, we whole-heartedly reject the trivialising our genuine commitment to protect the health and safety of the 30,000 workers who built FIFA World Cup stadiums and other tournament projects.”
